Zimbabwe mulls ending tax on diamonds

London-listed Coal of Africa and various environmental groups buried the hatchet on Thursday to work together to preserve Mapungubwe in northern South Africa near the company's controversial Vele opencast project. Construction of the coking coal mine was halted and the Australian company fined $1.3 million because it did not comply with aspects of environmental laws, but the green coalition has now agreed to drop all legal action. Coal of Africa Limited closed at 49.52 pence in London on Thursday up 8.2% on the previous day.

Dundee Precious Metals (TSE:DPM) was up 4.83% to close at $8.89 Thursday, on news that the Bulgarian government has approved the environmental impact assessment (EIA) for its Krumovgrad gold project. "Since initially embarking on this project in 2005, we have made great efforts to develop a comprehensive plan for Krumovgrad that addresses the concerns of the community and will prove to be economically beneficial forBulgaria and the local community, as well as DPM and its shareholders," President and CEO Jonathan Goodman said in a statement.

The mining industry in Quebec is roaring, with $2.92 billion in investment in 2010, up from 43% in 2009. The Institut de la statistique du Québec, which released the findings on Wednesday, said that this was the seventh straight year mining investment increased, and in each of the last three years investment was greater than $2 billion. In March the Fraser Institute warned that changes to the province's tax code would harm business investment, and Quebec slid from first to fourth in the institute's list of mining-friendly jurisdictions. If the changes don't weigh on province, 2011 could be a banner year.

Syncrude's heavy equipment operator, Maggy Horvath, unearthed what may be a nearly complete plesiosaur and the 10th fossil found on Syncrude leases. The discovery contributes to Alberta's prehistoric history and the understanding of the evolution of life on Earth. The fossil, which Horvath found during her shift on November 14, 2011, is currently being examined by scientists and technicians from the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology. "This is a very rare find. It's a long necked plesiosaur, which is a marine reptile with a very long neck, small head and short body. The last one that was recovered was 10 years ago; it was recognized as a new kind and given the name Wapuskanectes," said Dr. Don Brinkman, Director at Royal Tyrrell. "It felt pretty good to call my son and let him know that I found a prehistoric fossil while working in the mine," said Horvath.

One of the more unique lots at Christie's Magnificent Jewels auction on November 29 in Hong Kong is likely to be a set of poker chips made by the Swedish artist and jeweller Kristian Ståhl. The 120 chips are made of 18K white gold and are set with a total of 5,160 calibrated top-quality diamonds, rubies and sapphires. But what makes the set truly unique is that each chip was sliced from the 1 million year old Muonionalusta meteorite that contains iron, nickel and rare earths. The set is estimated at $100,000 – $150,000 and Stahl said he was inspired to create it after his Siberian mammoth ivory dice sold well at auction last year.

A preliminary economic assessment for the Danakhil potash project in Ethiopia pegs the capital costs at $797 million. Canadian potash junior Allana Potash announced the figure yesterday while also outlining plans to raise the capital during a conference call to investors. CEO Farhad Abasov said during the call that nearly all the debt funding would come from development agencies such as the International Finance Corp (IFC), the African Development Bank and export-import banks from the US, Canada and Europe. The remaining $300 million would come from the sale of equity stock.

Pele Mountain Resources Inc. (TSX Venture: GEM; OTCQX: GOLDF) (“Pele” or the “Company”) today announced that processing design improvements have resulted in sharply higher recoveries of critical rare earth oxides (“REO”), including neodymium, dysprosium and yttrium oxides, (Pele’s “Big 3 REO”) at its Eco Ridge Mine Rare Earths and Uranium Project (“Eco Ridge” or the “Project”) in Elliot Lake,Ontario.

By buying the stake held by defunct broker MF Global, JP Morgan has dramatically boosted its influence in the battle to acquire the London Metal Exchange. As the biggest shareholder JP Morgan now has stronger input into any changes proposed by suitors while making a tidy profit from any sale, but retains the option to team up with others to block a takeover, analysts and industry sources told Reuters. JP Morgan now has a stake of 1.4 million shares or 10.9%, jumping ahead of the former dominant shareholder, Goldman Sachs, but the banks have also come under scrutiny over possible conflicts of interest as it also owns metal warehouses and proved brokerage services. One of the last bastions of open outcry trading, the 134-year old exchange handles some 80% of global trade in metals futures.

The Royal Canadian Mint has a hit on its hands after raising $600 million from the sale of its exchange traded fund alternative, exchange traded receipts backed by physical gold bullion held in the mint’s facilities in Ottawa, Ontario. The Canadian mint, which introduced the ETRs just over three weeks ago, says that ETRs are different than other gold investment products since the purchaser of an ETR owns the actual gold rather than a unit or share in an entity that owns the gold. Given the money raised, the Globe and Mail calculates that the ETRs may be the largest initial public offering of the year.